Rotty’s work, which utilizes photography, audio, the risograph printing process and found objects, grew out of her own service as a poll worker in the San Francisco Department of Elections beginning in 2016. She describes it as looking at the scaffolding of a society and asks how it holds up. Her photographs, prints, and book made with Zach Clark of National Monument Press, along with audio interviews recorded with Angela Johnston, speak to the social mosaic of the communities making elections happen. 

Miller’s photographs, made with an 8×10 view camera, originated as an assignment for a national magazine to photograph polling stations on the day of the 2004 presidential election. Miller, who had never really paid much attention to polling stations beyond presenting his ID and address, and voting himself, discovered that our democracy is preserved by this simple, yet massive, system made up of individuals who care deeply about their own small part of it. 

Together, these two practices arrive at the same realization from opposite directions, one from inside the process, the other from outside it. Running an election is itself a democratic act. Anyone can do this essentially clerical work, and the people who do reflect a range of backgrounds, ages, and reasons for being there. Some step in for an elderly neighbor. Some are curious. Some translate for voters who need it. Some do it because they came from a country where this kind of election doesn’t exist at all. The polling place itself is just a room, a gym or a firehouse or a church basement, until the people inside it fill it with their purpose. 

This exhibition brings the projects of these two artists together in Northlight Gallery at Arizona State University ahead of the 2026 midterms. Arizona is one of the most closely watched swing states in the country, and what happens here in November will shape the balance of Congress and, with it, the direction of the country for everyone in it, regardless of party or state. As a battleground state, Arizona has seen voter intimidation, subpoenaed ballots, and lawsuits aimed at undermining the results of the 2020 election. Those efforts ultimately failed, thanks to the work of individuals like the ones who appear in these photographs. 

While some see the opportunity to undermine the very underpinning of democracy, Rotty and Miller see that Fredrick Douglass’ Revolutionary Idea has always depended on the honest, collaborative work of ordinary people that secures the process of elections, and the collective labor of making room for more voices, not less.